NORFOLK, Va. — If anyone is looking for a little post-election conversation and doesn't want to get too political, 13News Now has compiled a short list of talking points looking into the history of elections in the United States.
For starters, elections took place way before the constitution was ratified. The English voted soon after landing in Virginia in the 17th century.
Buying votes with liquor was considered commonplace in the 18th century. In fact, one young candidate spent his entire campaign budget in 1758 just to buy 160 gallons of liquor for voters to drink, and he won a seat in the House of Burgesses with the effort.
That young candidate was George Washington.
Election voting machines were first patented in the late 19th century, but it wasn’t until the 20th century that they were used by the masses. A lever machine replaced voting by hand or voice.
Speaking of how we vote, does anyone remember the hanging chad incident in the 2000 presidential election?
That was back when some jurisdictions had voters punching their vote into a card, leading to the controversy over how much of a punch counted.
The chances of that happening again are zero. The last two counties in America to abandon punch cards did so in 2014. Today, most states either use scanned paper or electronic ballots.